Computer controlled printing systems have been used for printing business forms, checks, etc. To be efficient, several logical pages or forms are printed in multiple orientations on a physical page. Such systems typically include a printer peripherally controlled by a host computer. A protocol processor accepts the high level language from the host computer and breaks it down to a form recognizable by the printer. A page buffer typically is interfaced to store the sequential commands for the printer. Also, a bit map memory is used in the system to contain 1 bit for each dot to be printed on a logical page. Printers used in such systems require both target orientation and target positioning information to be included with text data.
It would be advantageous to provide improved means for generating logical pages within the printer's page buffer without regard to target orientation on the physical page. In that way a logical page could be positioned in multiple orientations on the physical page without requiring the host computer to retransmit the logical page. Also, reduced channel thruput could be realized if a the same buffered logical page is used many times, but in different orientations. Further, print files could be used without change on different forms and different printers of the family; for example, cut sheet vs. continuous sheet, impact vs. non-impact.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present printing system devices. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.